


Easier Done Than Said

by Huggle



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Caring Clint Barton, Caring Phil Coulson, Confused Phil Coulson, Hurt Clint Barton, M/M, Protective Phil Coulson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:22:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27215620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huggle/pseuds/Huggle
Summary: Clint wants something from Phil.  He’s just not sure how to get it.Phil knows Clint wants something from him, but it takes him a little effort to understand what.
Relationships: Clint Barton/Phil Coulson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 91
Collections: Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2020





	Easier Done Than Said

“Clint,” Phil says. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

Clint sometimes feels like he’s a glass bottle, and everything he wants to say is written on scraps of paper shoved inside, and Phil can just look right in him to know what he’s thinking.

He gives up trying to pretend he’s wistfully watching the new attack fighter get ready for its first test flight (if he hadn’t burst his eardrum on that last mission, he’d be the one taking it up) and turns around to find Coulson _not even looking at him_.

Clint looks around him, aware there’s no one in the room, but also aware that on the Helicarrier there is always someone watching and listening. 

He waits until Coulson looks up, and then looks back, until Phil frowns, but nods, and says, “I have three more reports to complete. And then we’ll go get something to eat.”

++

Fury knows about them. Of course he does. He probably knew about them before _they_ knew about them, and Clint remembers not being able to breathe when he and Phil got summoned to Fury’s office.

This, and the Avengers, and Phil...they were all Clint had, and he could lose all of them depending on what Fury did next.

It’s a relief that all he does is chew them out but for so dumb as to start a relationship that is not only against the rules for any two people working for SHIELD, but especially against the rules for any two people working on the same team, and even _more_ against the rules when one of those people is an agent in charge, and the other a subordinate.

Clint shouldn’t have to reassure Fury that Phil is in no way taking advantage of him, and Phil shouldn’t need to reassure Fury of the same thing, and they both shouldn’t need to vow that they will never put the other above the mission, but apparently Fury’s being more of an asshole than usual because they do.

It’s only later than Clint realises Fury probably gets watched and listened in on as well.

There’s no secrets in SHIELD. 

Aside from when half of his colleagues turned out to be working for Hydra, but that’s a different story.

++

Getting something to eat has become their code phrase for going home and taking care of each other.

Clint helps Phil out of his jacket, makes him some tea, massages muscles stiff from spending five solid hours at a desk wading through more reports than Clint thinks it’s possible to actually produce. 

Phil makes sure Clint takes his painkillers and antibiotics and then leads Clint upstairs to bed.

And that’s when Clint figures he might as well come out with it.

“Can you...Can you just...hold me?”

Phil looks a little confused, glancing from the bed to Clint and then back and forth again. 

“Clint, I’m not sure you’re up to anything energetic like this, but I’m especially sure that I’m not comfortable with holding you down. At all, if I’m being honest, but certainly not while you have a ruptured eardrum and are on medication.”

Clint wishes he could shake some of the woolly feeling out of his head because he’s screwing this up.

“No,” he says, trying not to sound frustrated with Phil. “Not down. Just…”

Realisation shows on Phil’s face, and his cheeks colour at the mistake. “I see. I...I don’t have a problem with that, Clint.”

Then he’s the one helping Clint get changed, into the fluffy plaid PJs Natasha got him for Christmas that he will absolutely deny he still has if anybody (Tony) asks about them again, and holding up the covers until Clint slips under them.

Phil settles back, and then lifts up his arm, and that’s all the encouragement Clint needs. It still feels awkward as anything, until Phil’s arm comes to wrap gently around his shoulders, tucking Clint up against him, and then just like that, it’s okay.

More than okay, but before he can tell Phil that, the pain and the meds and the state he’s only then realising he’s worked himself into starts to tell and he can feel himself slipping under.

Phil seems to know anyway, and the last thing Clint feels is a gentle kiss to his forehead before he falls completely asleep.


End file.
